The rising momentum for marginal field developments will continue to partly drive interest in the oil and gas (O&G) sector, as O&G orders in the second quarter of 2013 had surged by 2.2 times quarter-on-quarter to RM17bil, according to AmResearch.

However, it noted that the excitement over the sector would still largely stem from larger field projects.

It said some of the more sizeable ventures included enhanced-oil recovery projects, gas cluster developments for the North Malay basin, as well as the completion of the Bintulu liquefied natural gas complex expansion in 2015.

On Vestigo Petroleum Sdn Bhd’s search for the charter of a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) or floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel that is capable of holding up to 150,000 barrels of crude oil, an oil and gas analyst with a bank-backed brokerage estimated the cost of such a vessel would be around US$100mil (RM325mil).

“Based on an internal rate of return of 12% to 15%, the charter fee for the FPSO could be approximately US$15mil (RM49mil) per annum,” he said.

Another analyst said Vestigo Petroleum could have identified development targets among the 10 marginal oilfields on offer, which came under the third round of risk service contracts being dished out by Petronas.

To recap, an O&G publication reported that the Petronas Carigali subsidiary, which was incorporated last month, was sounding out for an FPSO or FSO charter to support crude production of up to 6,000 barrels per day for a charter running between two and seven years.

The move led to speculation that the unit, which was set up to focus on marginal oil fields locally and abroad, had already identified targets among the 10 fields, notably, Rusa Timur, Mutiara Hitam and Kuda Terbang off Sabah.

Meanwhile, another analyst estimated the contract winner could bag between RM50mil and RM100mil a year but noted that the price might vary based on the specifications of the vessels.